Bernanke Could Lose Half A Trillion On Balance Sheet

It's time that we called in the Seals
To take-out a moron who steals
Zero Tarp Thirty
A bailout so dirty
The Master of all shady deals

The Limerick King

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Scroll down for video and photos.

Bernanke Could Lose Half A Trillion On Balance Sheet When Rates Rise

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s efforts to rescue the economy could result in more than a half trillion dollars of losses on the central bank’s books if interest rates rise abruptly from recent levels.

That sum is the difference between the value of securities in the Fed’s portfolio on Dec. 31 and what they may fetch in three years, according to data compiled by MSCI Inc. (MSCI) of New York for Bloomberg News. MSCI applied scenarios devised by the Fed itself for stress-testing the nation’s 19 largest banks.

The potential losses are unprecedented in the Fed’s 100- year history.  Bernanke began describing in detail the risk of lower payments to taxpayers for the first time today in his monetary policy testimony before the Senate Banking Committee saying that “remittances to the Treasury could be quite low for a time” if interest rates “were to rise quickly.”  Bernanke didn’t describe the overall interest-rate risk to the portfolio or potential mark-to-market losses.  He said the Fed is “confident” it has tools to tighten monetary policy.

Billionaire Paulson Looks To Leave NY And Exploit New Puerto Rico Tax Loophole

John Paulson, a lifelong New Yorker, is exploring a move to Puerto Rico, where a new law would eliminate taxes on gains from the $9.5 billion he has invested in his own hedge funds, according to four people who have spoken to him about a possible relocation.

Ten wealthy Americans have already taken advantage of the year-old Puerto Rican law that lets new residents pay no local or U.S. federal taxes on capital gains, according to Alberto Baco Bague, Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico. The marginal tax rate for affluent New Yorkers can exceed 50 percent on ordinary income.

SOURCE: Apple Will Make Announcement Next Month On Plans for Cash Hoard

What Hath Rand Paul Wrought? - New York Times

Fed's Bank Stress Tests Are A Joke - Chris Whalen

Federal Reserve's Stress Test - Complete Results

Ally Bank (GMAC) Is The Only Bank That Failed Fed's Stress Test

Obama's Kill List Is STILL Growing | Paul Craig Roberts

Congressional Bonuses Still Get Paid Even In During Sequester

Public College Tuition Soars By Most Ever

Inside The Secret Internet For Drug Dealers, Assassins, And Pedophiles

Female Soldier Gets 5-Years In Prison For Smuggling $1 Million Out Of Afghanistan

Spent The Smuggled Funds On Plastic Surgery And An 18-Wheeler

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Photo Break - Lloyd Blankfein Fat Bottomed Girl

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AIPAC: Israel ups Iran war rhetoric in push for US aid.

Explicit warnings of military action against Iran are coming in hot and heavy at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington.  Israel's most ardent supporters are pushing for greater U.S. backing.

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Shep Smith & Judge Napolitano rip Obama on drone kills.

After the government killed radical Islamist preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American citizen, with a drone strike in Yemen, his 16-year-old son was also killed.  "You know what they said?  They said he picked a bad father.  Are you kidding me?"

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Rand Paul is a constitutional hero.

The Young Turks show their support for Rand.

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Key question begins at 3:25 mark.

Rand Paul discusses drone strikes with Greta Van Susteren.

• Wash Po Op-Ed: Filibuster was just the beginning...

Comments

[DailyBail]

Falklands Vote Overwhelmingly to Retain British Territory Status

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-12/falklands-vote-overwhelmingly-to-retain-british-territory-status.html

[DailyBail]

Egypt protesters torch buildings, target Suez Canal

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/09/us-egypt-riot-idUSBRE92805G20130309

[DailyBail]

Big vote on EU 'ban on all forms of pornography'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9917189/MEPs-to-vote-on-EU-ban-on-all-forms-of-pornography.html

[DailyBail]

The Border Patrol cannot confiscate or download every laptop or electronic device brought into the U.S., a federal appeals court said, ruling that people have an expectation their data are private and that the government must have “reasonable suspicion” before it starts to snoop.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/8/court-limits-feds-ability-search-laptops-border

[DailyBail]

State Dept Official Writes A Scathing Piece About Obama's Foreign Policy

http://www.businessinsider.com/scathing-foreign-policy-obama-vali-nasr-2013-3#ixzz2NJ84di8q

[DailyBail]

Full Transcript: Rand Paul's filibuster

http://www.tidewaterreview.com/news/politics/la-pn-transcript-rand-paul-filibuster-20130307,0,4955533,full.story

[DailyBail]

Stress Test Follies & Zombie Banks

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-03-07/ccar-stress-test-follies-zombie-banks

Different op-ed from Chris Whalen (not the one in links above).

[DailyBail]

Greece may still have to quit euro: Merkel

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/09/us-germany-greece-exit-idUSBRE9280EX20130309

[DailyBail]

Scooby SNAPs: New York organization offers ‘Pet Food Stamps’

http://petfoodstamps.org/

[DailyBail]

Snow triggers huge 100-car pile-up in Germany

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2292087/Snow-triggers-huge-100-car-pile-Germany-grounds-planes-continent.html

Photos

[DailyBail]

Italy slid deeper into recession during the fourth quarter of last year, official figures showed on Monday, as the European Parliament's president warned that Europe risks losing an entire generation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9921904/Italys-economy-shrinks-as-EU-leader-warns-of-lost-generation.html

[DailyBail]

Afghan War Falling Apart at the Seams

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/03/11/afghan-war-falling-apart-at-the-seams/

[SKINFLINT]

The problem with the young lady that laundered a million bucks through empty cassettes is this. When was the last time anyone used cassettes for anything. She should have stuck that money onto pallets, shrink wrapped it and sent it to Dover or Ft. Bragg, rented limos with flags on them and sent the limos to pick up the money. Kind of how they do in Iraq and Afghanistan, just in reverse.

[DailyBail]

Good point, skin.

[DailyBail]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks retreated Friday, jeopardizing the longest advance by the Dow Jones Industrial Average in more than 16 years and containing the S&P 500 just as it neared its record close.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-decline-after-extended-run-2013-03-15

[rollsthepaul]

Unsustainable in every way
And forever more, that's how it will stay
That's why insane debt is so incredible
That something so unsustainable
Thinks that we're unsustainable too.
Nat King Bernanke

[Ken Lay from South America]

Bernanke and the FED could end up loosing alot more than that .... if Bernankes investments end up being worth only 30 cents on the Dollar, the looses will be far greater.

[DailyBail]

Italian court overturns Amanda Knox acquittal, orders new trial in 2007 slaying of roommate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-high-court-overturns-amanda-knox-acquittal-orders-new-trial-in-2007-slaying-of-roommate/2013/03/26/49728414-95f5-11e2-8764-d42c128a01ef_story.html

[DailyBail]

Michele Bachmann faces congressional ethics probe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/03/25/michelle-bachmann-faces-congressional-ethics-probe